Royal with Cheese and other stuff our Neighbors eat.

Was just reading the Fries thread about how they Use Mayonnaise on their fries in Europe (I am the only person I know who does that here) and was wondering what other cultural foods have popped up in Fast Food restaurants around the world.
Here in Miami, Florida USA, Mickey Ds tried Cuban Sandwiches for a while but failed miserably. Not because people don't eat them but because they were just terrible factory made junk that tasted like plastic.

Was just reading the Fries thread about how they Use Mayonnaise on their fries in Europe (I am the only person I know who does that here) and was wondering what other cultural foods have popped up in Fast Food restaurants around the world.
Here in Miami, Florida USA, Mickey Ds tried Cuban Sandwiches for a while but failed miserably. Not because people don't eat them but because they were just terrible factory made junk that tasted like plastic.

So post your Royals with Cheese.

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I just moved from Miami and me and all my friends ate fries with mayo or a mayo ketchup blend. Sometimes we'd mix honey mustard too.

Mine's a pint: Bush at the Dun Cow
George and Laura Bush swapped Buckingham Palace banquets for a slap-up fish dinner at Tony and Cherie Blair's local pub.
After feasting on the finest cuisine for the first two days of his state visit, the teetotal US president chose the fish, chips and mushy peas at the Dun Cow Inn in Sedgefield town centre.

Mushy peas are a hardy variety of sub aqueous legume found principally in the Northern parts of England; in the region highest in rain-fall (particularly the Manchester area).

Modern methods of irrigation can be used by allowing the growing-fields (colloquially known as "slutch-pads") to be flooded artificially.

During the planting season, the peasant planters or "muddies" in their thigh-high boots or "wellies", painstakingly plant the legume seedlings under the murky waters at 6 inch intervals. They are then tended and nurtured constantly until they are approximately 18 inches above the waterline and the pea-pods are mature and swollen beneath the surface.

Modern harvesting is done by mechanical harvesters on shallow-draught pea-boats which pick, strain and load the crop in one economical cycle.

At carefully chosen intervals, corresponding to the lunar cycle, the harvested peas are deposited in special vats, at which time the mushing takes place. Little is known of this carefully protected ritual, but it is thought to involve many muddies and various type of footwear.

The peas are then shipped with great speed to only the finest restaurants, for the delight of you, the consumer.

Northern chippies are a hotbed of multicultural culinary creativity turning foody protocol on its head. Novel blends of foods from different continents grace the menu. Chicken pie on a bed of chow mein, half-rice half-chips in a curry sauce, and even battered cod with a sweet and sour accompaniment are all served with the essential salt and vinegar condiments.

The food pays no attention to changing fads. It remains resolutely anti-Atkins and unhip. It gives a single-finger salute to the London glossies and bureaucrats, who advocate that our diets should consist of no more than rocket leaves, grilled artichoke and starvation.

A visit to the chippy is a ritual that marks the best of Northern traditions - a walk to the ground on match days, Friday nights out with friends at the local pub and a moment's respite from rummaging through the bargains at the market. To be honest, the ritual is easy to learn and you may have it perfected after a few attempts.

One of the saddest conversations I have with foreigners who have visited Britain is about fish and chips. So many times I am told that they tried our national dish but that the experience was disappointing to say the least. 95% of the time the explanation for this is simple - they ate in London or somewhere else in the south.

So my advice to foreign visitors to the UK is this - wait until you get up North before you try fish and chips.

And much as it pains me to say it - wait until you get to Yorkshire because it is there that you will find chippies that sell fish and chips, fresh and hot and if you are lucky cooked in lard and not vegetable oil.

And in a Yorkshire village or seaside town you will find chippies that sell fish and chips and not much else other than the essential moistness factor provided by mushy peas. The last one I went to in Scarborough had an old sign instructing you to order pies in advance because they will need warming up in the oven. When we get regional devolution the EU should protect fish and chips by giving it the same product rights as champagne or Parma ham - if it is made south of Sheffield it should have to call itself something else - limp, tasteless, greasy fish and soggy spuds would be a more accurate description of what I have eaten in the capital.

Talking of pies, don't go to a chippie - go to a proper Northern bakery and get a custard or an Eccles cake while you are there. If you want a sandwich leave the packaged triangle shaped things in London and wait till you get to Newcastle and ask for a filled stottie.

None of this is to deny the multicultural fast food experience that Deborah Cohen describes. The pie and Chinese combo-meal was probably the first arrival and I discovered it when a bloke was in the queue in front of me and ordered a number 52 with a meat pie for the road. Or was it when I was at school and the Chinese Chippy down the road started doing a roaring trade in Pineapple Fritters, Chips and gravy?

Now you can't avoid the wonders of Doner Pizzas (which I am not a great fan of) or that speciality of Asian Lancashire the Naan Doner. As opposed to the usual dainty pita bread offering with the slices of gunk, slither of salad and dash of chilli sauce, the Naan Doner is as as big as a calzone pizza and is stuffed with every varient of grilled meat, loads of salad and all the sauces. You won't be thinking about food until that Saturday lunchtime fry-up.

Ah yes, the fry-up. I'll give you southerners some credit on that front. The great London greasy spoon with it's all day Full Monty. Shame the tea is always so weak.

I sometimes think that all the US-based guys we talk to, would get on very well with Northerners, like Yorkshire people - whereas softy southerners like us, are a different kettle of fish (and mushy peas) altogether!!

Well, to get back to the original topic, I haven't seen anything that different in Finnish fast food chains.

There's one chain though, that is always having special meals that fiddle with mexican stuff, although having a meal consisting of hamburger with jalapeno sauce and corn chips thingies with salsa dip instead fries isn't as good idea as it might seem on paper, believe me.

Um, well I have seen a dozen different dip sauces for fries and option to take a small salad or a portion of steamed carrots instead of fries in all this "eating fast food can be healthier"-craze, but I believe it's the same everywhere in Europe?

You can buy a dish of meatballs and smashed potatoe at more traditional type BBQ-shacks, though.

You can get grits with your McDonald's breakfast in the Southern US, but nowhere else.

Diners in the South do not serve corned beef hash. They act like they don't know what it is (maybe they don't?) and your friends laugh at you for being a Yankee and tell you to order the grits. I don't want your wheat mush, I want chopped up greasy beef and potatoes that looks like grilled dog food!

When I lived in Boca Raton, we wouldn't go anywhere but Little Havana in Mee-ah-mee for a Cuban sammitch.

Mushy peas ?!?! I guess the lyrics in Frank Zappa's movie, "200 Motels" were right -

"Lord have mercy on the people in England/For the terrible food these people must eat....."

"...what other cultural foods have popped up in Fast Food restaurants around the world.

Click to expand...

When I worked at Pizza Hut's World Headquarters, our dept. was next to the International Dept., so we always knew when there was a taste testing for their dept. for some reps from Thailand in the R&D lab. I guess a lot of people consider it "fast food."
One time, it was something called Spicy Tom Yum Kung. It was a pizza with these great, fresh, ear mushrooms, big prawns, fresh squid, chilli paste, and capsicum........(WHOA!!! CAPSICUM!!! That's the hottest ingredient in the world on the Scoville Unit Heat Scale!!!)

But, the capsicum was used sparingly and the whole thing was quite good. Trouble is - many Thais are like many Chinese in that they can't tolerate cheese at first because it was never a part of their diet.

When I lived in Boca Raton, we wouldn't go anywhere but Little Havana in Mee-ah-mee for a Cuban sammitch.

Mushy peas ?!?! I guess the lyrics in Frank Zappa's movie, "200 Motels" were right -

"Lord have mercy on the people in England/For the terrible food these people must eat....."

When I worked at Pizza Hut's World Headquarters, our dept. was next to the International Dept., so we always knew when there was a taste testing for their dept. for some reps from Thailand in the R&D lab. I guess a lot of people consider it "fast food."
One time, it was something called Spicy Tom Yum Kung. It was a pizza with these great, fresh, ear mushrooms, big prawns, fresh squid, chilli paste, and capsicum........(WHOA!!! CAPSICUM!!! That's the hottest ingredient in the world on the Scoville Unit Heat Scale!!!)

But, the capsicum was used sparingly and the whole thing was quite good. Trouble is - many Thais are like many Chinese in that they can't tolerate cheese at first because it was never a part of their diet.

Explanation:
Thin cut pan fried breaded steak and plain fried steak. Fried sweet plantains and another version of the same thing. White rice and rice mixed with a small amount of black beans and some pork pieces. A chicken and sticky yellow rice similar to paella but without the seafood, and yellow rice mixed with seafood and usually peas and red peppers. Black beans usually prepared boiled and mixed with a good amount of mashed black beans and a white Cuban cheese.

!My favorite literal translation!

Old clothes and fried cow.

What they are:
Boiled beef thats pulled into thin stringy parts and then cooked in a sauce made of tomato juice, onions, olives, and wine. The same boiled a pulled beef but fried with lime juice, onions, and good amount of salt till its very well done. Both are VERY TASTY!